


A Thief

by eugeneismyqueen



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23644459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eugeneismyqueen/pseuds/eugeneismyqueen
Summary: After a month living in the castle, Eugene fears he is still untrusted by all of Corona (except his girlfriend) and grapples with inner turmoil over accepting himself and finding his place in this new life as he embraces 'Eugene Fitzherbert' and lets go of Flynn.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Rapunzel, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	A Thief

**Author's Note:**

> This was written and published as part of Eugene Appreciation Week in November 2019 on Tumblr under the prompt: thief.

“Eugene!” 

Eugene heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of the girl with short brown hair bobbing up to him. 

“Hello, sunshine,” he grinned as she bounced into his arms. 

“Hi, Eugene,” Rapunzel breathed, holding him tight. “Are you free for lunch? The quee- I mean, my mom, said I could spend some time with you this afternoon.”

Rapunzel was getting better at catching herself and referring to the king and queen as her rightful parents. But it had not yet been a month since the day the lost princess had come home and the bitter wounds left by Mother Gothel had not yet scabbed over. In the first week, Rapunzel had been so overwhelmed by all of the newness and the bustle of castle life that she had sensory overload frequently. Everything was too nice and too much, and she hated sleeping because that was when the nightmares came. So without fail, she snuck her way to Eugene’s room every one of those nights and the two would sit in front of the fire and talk all night until Rapunzel would finally doze off, slumped against Eugene, her head tucked under his chin. 

But now the future queen of Corona was in the pavilion, head tilted to meet the eyes of a man who was no more than a thief. 

“I don’t know, sunshine, the king really wants me to brush up on all of these Coronan laws.” Eugene was terrified of even toeing the line when it came to the monarchs. He had screwed up bad in his lifetime, but the one thing he never wanted to jeopardize was his future with Rapunzel. Frederic and Ariana had taken Eugene in with open arms in the intense emotion and celebration of welcoming their baby girl home, but now the dust was settling and Eugene’s reputation as Flynn Rider was coming back to haunt him. 

“But, Eugene,” Rapunzel pleaded, squeezing Eugene tighter and pouting her lips. If this girl knew anything about getting her way with him, it was the puppy dog look.

He instantly melted. “You know sweetheart, you would make an excellent thief.”

“I would?” She laughed, music to his ears. 

“You already stole my heart,” he booped her nose. “I suppose a little lunch break isn’t the worst idea. And what better way to study Corona than by enjoying the scenery with it’s future queen?” 

“Euuu-geeenee.” Was all Rapunzel could say, laughing as she clasped his hand and dragged her rogue along behind her towards their picnic lunch.

——

“I can’t believe the king is letting a thief stay in the castle.”

“You know they’re saying that the thief stole the princess away from the tower she was locked up in.”

“Even if he did bring her home, he’s still a wanted criminal.”

“Flynn Rider,” a scoff sounded. “Didn’t that thief know he was supposed to be the good guy?”

Eugene sagged heavily into his bed, listening to the maids gossiping outside his door. They got easier and easier to tune out with time, but their words still sliced bitterly inside him. How could he ever prove he was more than just a thief?

Eugene tried to sleep that night. Rapunzel didn’t visit anymore. Her father stopped letting her see the thief at night. He didn’t say it quite like that, but Eugene knew the meaning was there. He was grateful for the warm bed. Grateful for all the food he could eat. Grateful he hadn’t been thrown in the stocks or noosed like he had almost been when Gothel and the Stabbington’s delivered him to the guards. Most of all, Eugene was just grateful to be with Rapunzel. But his own nightmares haunted him in the dead of night. Cruel ones that gripped his body and forced him to watch Rapunzel die. They would always end that same way. He would be on the run, or stealing something. Then he would run into Gothel and Rapunzel would be there, bound and gagged, and she would make him suffer by stabbing her instead of him. He couldn’t even hold her as she bled out. Just watch, paralyzed and screaming.

He woke in a cold sweat, trembling and scared. “Rapunzel?” He croaked, extending his fingertips out into the air and across the mattress but she wasn’t there. No one was. Eugene sat up and pulled on a shirt hanging over his chair by the fireplace, he slid his feet into his boots and headed out the corridor, desperate to get away and taste nature on his skin. 

After years of living on foot, Eugene always found the most comfort outside amongst trees. Here, he had no label, no name, no reason for existence. He was tiny and insignificant below the mighty trees. And every now and then, it felt good to be so humble. It felt good to be alone. So he trekked the forest path around the castle. The cool night air calming his nerves. It felt good to just be. 

A twig snapped nearby and Eugene went on the high alert. It was probably just an animal, but even then he didn’t want to be prowled by wildlife. He began to scramble up the nearest climbable tree, keeping an eye out for whatever had disturbed his silence.

“Fitzherbert?” A voice broke the quiet of the night, the word slipping out and ebbing back into stillness. But Eugene had heard it and he had recognized the voice. He crawled back down the tree and landed on his feet before the voice. 

“Your majesty?” Eugene replied, bowing before the mighty king of Corona, aka his girlfriend’s dad.

“What are you doing out so late, son?” King Frederic asked, waving aside Eugene’s formalities. 

“I could ask the same of you, sir,” Eugene chuckled, scratching his head, before quickly adding, “I needed some fresh air.”

“Me too. I always find a late night stroll to be the best cure to insomnia.” 

There was a thick silence between the two, Eugene shuffling from foot to foot, nervous at what would happen next and wishing he had just stayed in his room. 

King Frederic finally broke the silence. “So how are you settling into castle life, son? Are you becoming well versed in Corona law?”

Eugene spotted the hidden meaning behind his diplomatic words. Had he quit his thieving habits? In exchange for a full pardon from his crimes, he had to study all of Corona’s laws, as well as be formally trained as a highly regarded official. Which he wasn’t a highly regarded official and he couldn’t imagine a Corona where anyone viewed him as such. He was Flynn Rider, a wanted man. A rogue. A criminal. A thief. But he brought home the lost princess, and actions like that do not go unnoticed. 

Eugene met Frederic’s eyes. “My bed in the castle is far nicer than any bed I ever slept on in an orphanage, your majesty. I am eternally grateful and indebted to your kindness towards me. I also find the Coronan laws to be rather interesting!”

Eugene knew he’d said what the king wanted to hear when he smirked in satisfaction. He thought he could control Eugene like a puppet on strings. In some ways he was right. Eugene Fitzherbert was not Flynn Rider. He no longer wore that façade. He had no reason to now. He had Rapunzel and she brought out the best in him. She was everything he could ever want in life. 

“I will let you get back to your bed chambers, son,” the king said. There was an order buried in there. Perhaps an ex-thief couldn’t be trusted out on the castle grounds after dark. Please, Eugene thought to himself. If I were to steal from this castle, walking the grounds is the last thing I’d do. He turned around and headed back for the castle, his thoughts raising a corner of his lips. He knew deep down that what the king thought of him didn’t really matter. But he was a good man and he wanted to prove that to the father of the girl he was in love with. It just didn’t help that her father was a king. 

Eugene trudged back to his room, tiredness settling into his bones. He became aware of a presence in his bedroom as he approached it, the door stood ajar and shadows flickered beneath the threshold. He felt his heart rate spike to high alert and crept up on his door, weary of what he’d find on the other side of it. Probably some guards rooting through his belongings to make sure he was still being a law abiding citizen. It wouldn’t be the first time they had done that. 

Eugene held still and listened at the door. No voices. He pressed on it and it swung open from the person pulling the handle from inside the room.

“Rapunzel?” Eugene asked, bewildered.

“Eugene.” Rapunzel sighed, her tense body relaxing as she laid eyes on him.

“What are you doing here?” Eugene stepped inside of his room and shut the door behind them before some guard could catch the thief with the princess in his room.

“I just…” Rapunzel trailed off, her eyes clouded over, misty. 

Eugene released the air in his lungs and enveloped his love in his arms. “Oh, princess. It’s okay.”

“I just needed you, Eugene,” she whispered, her voice muffled against his collar bone. 

“I needed you too, Rapunzel.”

“I had another nightmare,” her voice shook. 

“I had one, too.” Eugene held her tighter. “Actually I went for a walk when I woke up. I ran into your dad.”

“My dad?” Rapunzel glanced up at him, confused. “Was it part of your nightmare?” She couldn’t suppress her small smile. Neither could he.

“Strangely, no.”

“Did he say anything?” 

“Let’s sit down, we need to talk.” Eugene guided Rapunzel to his bed where they sat on the edge of the mattress together. 

“Sometimes,” Eugene began. “I wish we could have just run away instead.”

“What do you mean?” Rapunzel asked.

“I know you found your home, Rapunzel. You found your family. But they’d already thought they’d lost you for good. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if we had run away together and made a life for ourselves in some faraway land where no one knew of Flynn Rider or the Lost Princess.”

Rapunzel stayed quiet. She was shocked by the words Eugene was saying, but deep down she understood what he meant. “It sure would have been easier, wouldn’t it?”

“Easier yes. But maybe not better.” Eugene sighed and dragged his hand down his face. “I don’t know, Rapunzel. I just don’t belong in this world. I’m trying hard every day to be the man you deserve and the man your father wants me to be. But all that he sees, all that the guards see, and all that Corona sees, is Flynn Rider. They only see the person I used to be, they don’t trust me. They’ve ransacked my room. They keep track of me constantly. Your father let me go free because I brought you home, but sunshine, I am not a free man.”

“Eugene.” Rapunzel looked heartbroken. She always wore her emotions plain as day on her sleeve. She gently took Eugene’s face between her hands and kissed his cheeks, his nose, his forehead, before finally kissing his lips. “Eugene,” she whispered again. “You are my family and you belong here by my side. Together, we are strong. We are unstoppable. And whether this kingdom likes it or not, we are its future. I have to learn everything too, Eugene. It’s hard and everyone expects so much of me when only a month ago, I was just a girl in a tower with a dream. But you are my new dream, and I can’t do any of this without you. Maybe we should have run away and taken the easy way out. But we are here now, to better both ourselves and Corona. It is our destiny. We will prove to everyone that you are a man worth entrusting and that Flynn Rider is your past, not your future or your present. You are Eugene Fitzherbert. You are my Eugene. And I love you. All of you. Even if no one else does yet.”

Eugene brushed the tears out of his eyes. He scooped up his lost princess into his lap and held her close, burying his nose in the crook of her shoulder. She was right. His reputation wasn’t who he was. He was Eugene Fitzherbert now, and he would show Corona that he was serious. But he could only do it with Rapunzel by his side.

“I love you, Blondie.”

“I love you, Eugene.”


End file.
